Campaign 2012: Jim Tedisco, Michele Draves vying for new 112th State Assembly District

Minimum wage, a millionaire's tax and Medicaid funding are key issues shaping the race between incumbent Republican Assemblyman James Tedisco and his Democratic challenger, Michele Draves.

Tedisco, 62, of Glenville, is the Assembly's Minority Whip, seeking his 16th term in office.

Draves, 39, a former United Way fundraiser, also lives in Glenville where she's a stay-at-home mom raising her twin 5-year-old boys in the last year before they head off to school.

The new 112th Assembly District is more suburban and rural than the 110th District that Tedisco currently represents. The district will no longer include Saratoga Springs, Schenectady and Niskayuna, but it will have Clifton Park, Halfmoon and Providence. Other towns still in the district are Glenville, Ballston, Charlton, Galway, Milton and Greenfield.

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"I think it's time for some change in Albany," Draves said. "We need to be progressive and get things accomplished. We've had the same representative in Albany for 30 years. He's not doing anything to help us. We've got to improve education funding. There have been 30,000 education job cuts in the past few years. A millionaire's tax would raise $2 billion. Some of that could be used to supplement property taxes and fund education."

But Tedisco said his long tenure is a valuable asset in getting measures approved at the capitol, where he said there's a new spirit of bipartisan cooperation. "My experience has allowed me to cross party lines and get things done when others haven't," he said.

Specifically, he led a move to digitize legislative documents that's saved taxpayers $50 million per year in paper and printing costs. Tedisco said he's also gotten a felony animal cruelty law passed, was instrumental in getting a law adopted to get chronic drunken drivers off the road and that he authored the Used Resources Accountability Act, a proposal that Gov. Andrew Cuomo implemented administratively. Now called NYYStore, it makes the state money by selling surplus items such as used computers, furniture and vehicles online instead of sending them to landfills.

Draves said that raising the minimum wage would get some people off unemployment, while at the same time giving lower-income people more disposable income so they could buy more goods and services, which would create more jobs in the process. She said the state should also spend more for job training programs and make more tax incentives for small business.

"We know that our unemployment rate is not dropping," she said.

Tedisco said he also supports a minimum wage hike, but he opposed previous legislation that would have hurt low-wage earners by forcing many employers to cut such jobs in order to pay for the cost of a wage increase. He said he supports a new bi-partisan bill that would approve a pay hike, while providing tax and regulatory relief to small business, too.

Draves said New York is one of only two states where counties have to pay a portion of Medicaid costs. The state should assume all such costs, she said.

Tedisco agrees.

"We've gotten our foot in the door on mandate relief by freezing future Medicaid cost increases," he said. "I'm a sponsor of bipartisan legislation (A.8655-A) to enable a state takeover of the full burden of paying for Medicaid, which will go a long way to reducing local property taxes."

Draves said she does not believe in government-imposed term limits and that it would probably take several terms to accomplish much of what she wants to get done. Voters and political parties should impose term limits by removing people from office who aren't doing good jobs, she said.

Tedisco said elected officials should be allowed to have lengthy careers, the same as business and professional people. "I wake up every day and go to a job I love," he said. "When that stops, I know it will be time to leave."

Draves has never held elected office. However, she is vice chairwoman of the Scotia-Glenville Democratic Committee, is a Schenectady County Democratic Committee executive board member and has worked on campaigns for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, and U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam.

For the United Way, she was a labor liaison and handled union account fundraising, which she said netted the agency $1.5 million per year. "You can't raise funds for an agency such as United Way without building relationships," she said.

Both candidates said the state has to make sure horse racing's interests are protected if a constitutional amendment is approved that allows for full-scale casino gambling in New York.

Draves said she is pro-life, supports Medicaid funding for abortions and approves of same-sex marriage.

Tedisco said he's pro-life except for cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is in jeopardy. He does not support Medicaid-funded abortions. "I support funding for health counseling and education to reduce unwanted pregnancies," he said.

On same-sex marriage, he said he supports the traditional definition of marriage.

"But I also believe in the rule of law and representative democracy," he said. "Same-sex marriage is the law of New York, and I would not move to change it."